I saw someone hanging beside the lake and thought it was brilliant! I hunted down an ENO at the local REI and headed to the lake. I loved being able to just hang out in it, and when I was woken up several hours later by the park ranger was telling me it was past time to leave I figured I had accidentally stumbled into something even more brilliant than I thought initially.
I've always had a Mayan weave hammock (used to sleep in it when I lived in South America) for day uses. And had always pictured the "tent hammocks" as the sort where they are too small and you have to lie in them the wrong way (ie not diagonally) and scoffed at the idea. Ummm, yeah. I was sooo wrong. My last camping trip was rainy,cold and miserable and while lounging (uncomfortably) in my tent wishing I was in my hammock I vowed to find a way. Many hours on the internet doing research = me waiting eagerly for my WBBB to arrive
I was given an HH and just decided to try it out one day...woke up feeling great, without the back and hip issues that come from the ground. The rest is history. Now I just can't figure out what my obsession is all about with DIY stuff and different hammocks. I mean the HH is perfect, self contained system...yet I continue to make/buy new hammocks, tarps, PLUQs, and eventually I envision down floating around my living room when I get around to my DIY down UQ. I mean this is my life now: 900 fill, dynaglide, argon, whoopee slings, PLUQ, Ripstop, 1.9 oz stuff sack, and a couple Dutch clips...
I did my first hike on the AT when I was 3, and have been camping and traveling regularly throughout my life. What finally got me to try a hammock instead of a tent/bivy was a 4 year period living away from home, during which I spent 3-4 nights a week sleeping in a bivy on the roof (I started a new business and needed to be on site constantly). I got burnt out by the regular discomfort of less than perfect sleep conditions, so tried hammock equipment as part of an earnest goal to never again experience that sort of uncomfortable living condition. What started as a hopeful curiosity became a hobby, and then a bit of a consuming obsessive search for perfect portable year round comfort. Not only did I rediscover the joy of camping for fun again, I also found that being in a hammock tends to put me in a good mood, wherever I am, and that has genuinely improved my quality of life. I spend more time outside than I would otherwise, relaxing outside in the back yard at home, work, the park, etc. And now even at home, whenever I can't sleep in my bed, a hammock does the trick
I had a summer job with the forest service in 1977. Lived in the woods for that summer and they provided us with surplus jungle hammocks. It was a great summer. As I got older and had more disposable income, I bought the best modern equipment and I continued to add gear for creature comforts till I needed a pick-up and a utility trailer to haul all that gear. Now at 50+, I have come full circle and enjoy the minimal approach again. Don't care to spend hours of my camp time setting up and repacking the camp. A week in a cot is not so comfortable after all. The jungle hammock (I still have it and do camp with it occasionally), needed a new tarp. With a little looking online and with the help of a good friend, got the idea I didn't need to spend tons of cash on a new hammock. The gathered end DIY hammock is the answer to years of miserable sleep in the wilds. I can camp in places I couldn't before. More comfort in my old age is not measured in how many toys I can drag to a campground. Thanks Ben, for re-introducing me to the pleasures of the modern hammock.
I'm still in my 20s but I've had back issues since high school. Mostly low-back issues. Sleeping on mother earth, even with a pad, destroys my back for several days. It got to a point where the idea of camping was not nearly as enticing as it once was. The prospect of getting back to camping without all the pain is what made me a hanger.
I carried 50+ lbs of pack into Ramsey's Draft on a hunting trip. By the time exhaustion set in and the sun was going down we could not find flat ground to set our tarp over. Slept lousy on an incline. Been hanging ever since.
I have always been an outdoorsman, loved hiking camping and just getting out in it. After sleeping on the ground for year I had a buddy offer me his HH Expedition, as he had been on a long motorcycle trip and hated it. (I don't think he ever knew how to hang it.) Either way, his loss my gain love it, just now getting around to specing it out some.
I am technically not a hanger yet. I have been reading a lot from this forum and others while overly researching the concept. I have a Hennessy Deluxe Explorer coming in with the longer straps and it should arrive this Wednesday. I have found a wealth of knowledge on this forum and decided to join the community to give back a little of what I have gained so far. The wife and I have decided to get away from car camping ( Which at the moment consists of a 3 bedroom cabin style tent with a 8000 BTU window unit and an electric flush toilet), and get more active. We decided to start backpacking and hiking to get ourselves away from the computers, out of the house, in shape, and enjoying the outdoors. I want to apologize ahead of time for any ignorant questions I may have in the near future. Lol.
P.S. I will be copying and pasting this into the introduction thread as it will be almost an identical post either way. Hopefully that will not annoy someone or break any rules.
Thanks for all of the information thus far.
For me it was the GREAT need to get off of the ground, laying on the ground sucks. One day among many I was watching YouTube videos on backpacking and one of Shug's came up as a recommendation for viewing, and it's been all been a whole lot of fun from there.
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